Police say in the last three years it has dealt with more than 2,000 criminal cases that involved expatriate workers living in the country.
Police said a total of 2016 cases have been reported in relation to migrant workers in the last three years and most of these cases involve drug abuse and theft.
In a further breakdown, Police said these cases were reported from both the capital Male' as well as the islands and that they reported between 2019 to 2021.
Police said that in 2019, 94 drug-related cases involving expatriate workers were reported from Male' while 51 similar cases were reported from the atolls.
At the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020 when most of the country was under lockdown, 70 drug-related cases that involved migrants were reported in the Greater Male' Area while 48 such cases were reported from the Atolls.
Similarly, 2021 also saw the number of such cases decline with Police confirming just 39 similar cases reported across the country up until May of 2021.
Looking into theft and burglary cases involving migrant workers, Police confirmed 89 such cases in 2019 and 79 cases in 2020.
Police said until May 2021, it had investigated 69 theft-related cases involving migrant workers.
Statistics from Police reveal that they had repeatedly arrested some expatriate workers involved in criminal activities. In 2019, 12 foreigners were arrested on multiple occasions while in 2020 9 were arrested similarly and 5 were apprehended like this until May 2021.
Police have said that compared to 2019, the number of migrant workers involved in criminal activities has declined in 2020 and 2021.
